


Assassin

by 9SES4



Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5632144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9SES4/pseuds/9SES4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Constance has been missing for 6 months when she suddenly turns up at the Paris market. Post Season 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Constance picked up an apple in her hand and inspected it. Seeing it to her satisfaction, she placed in her basket along with three others and payed the vender. She turned around to look at the potatoes when she saw them. Aramis and Porthos. Her heart ached at the sight of them. It had been 6 months since she had seen any of them, though she hadn't regretted it one bit. Aramis' scanned the market crowd, skimming his eyes over her before doing a double take and landing them on her. He frowned slightly at her appearance and she knew why. Her once long hair had been cut and now fell into a small braid down her back, and she was wearing the dress of a servant. He turned to speak to Porthos and his eyes rose to find hers. She saw him stiffen as Alister leaned into her ear. 

'Look away from them and walk the other way. They will not be harmed if you do as you're told.' he told her. He passed her and she followed him close at the heels as he began to weave them in and out of the back streets of Paris until they arrived at the house. He opened the front door for her and she ducked inside. 

'What is it?' Picard asked. 

'Musketeers,' Alister replied. Constance walked past them and into the kitchen where she began to unload the contents of her basket. Alister walked in shortly after and sat down at the table. 

'I'm surprised that you didn't try and attract their attention,' he said.

'I wouldn't take that risk,' she replied. When she had finished unloading her basket she turned to face him. 'I didn't get everything that I needed. You,' she said to one of the men at the table. 'Get me some paper and ink. – I will make a list and give it to your men of the other things I need. It's too dangerous for me to go back out there now.' The man she spoke to stood up and left the room. She turned back to the counter and grabbed a knife. 

'I have an assignment for you tonight,' he said. He ran his finger along the rim of his wine glass. 

'Another petty thief who owns you money?' she asked, slicing the knife through her vegetables. 

'No, this one's a murderer -- who also happens to owe me money,' he replied. The man sitting across from him laughed softly. Constance momentarily froze before she continued to slice. His laugh had sounded so much like the rare laugh of Athos. 

'How chivalrous of you,' she said coldly. 

'Constance,' he said with a warning tone, 'do you remember our terms?'

'Yes, I'm sorry. I am grateful and happy to be here,' she replied automatically. 

~~~~~~~

D'Artagnan, Porthos, and Aramis stood outside of the house that Constance was in. Aramis and Porthos had followed Constance and the man that was with her until they ended here. They held a pistol in each hand and their weapons belts hung low on their hips. Porthos kicked the door and they stormed in. They swept the place, moving through and killing the sleeping men that littered the house. When the last gun had sounded, Aramis and Porthos dragged the four remaining men into the kitchen and tied them up while d'Artagnan ran around the house in a search for Constance. 

'She's not here,' he said as he came down the stairs. He came over to one of the tied men and grabbed his shirt. 'Where is she!' he yelled. 

'Who?' the man asked. 

'You know who I'm talking about! – Constance!'

'I don't know who you're talking about,' he replied. d'Artagnan brought his fist across the man's face and moved on to the next one. 'Where is she!'

'She's out,' he replied.

'Out where?'

'On business.' d'Artagnan threw him down and walked out the front door. 

'd'Artagnan,' Porthos began, following him outside and Aramis after him. He tensed as they saw two figures walking down the alleyway, dressed similarly to how the men in the house had been dressed. When they were close enough to be heard, Aramis pulled out his pistol and pointed it at them. 

'State your name and your business,' he said. 

'My name is Alister,' the taller of the two men replied. 'And this is my servant Jean-Luc, we're on our way home from the tavern.'

'And to which of these fine houses are you going to?' Aramis asked.

'Mine is two blocks north of here, we were only cutting through. Is there a problem?' he replied. 

'Yes,' d'Artagnan said, 'Have you seen a woman around here of the name of Constance?'

'Constance?' he asked. 'No, I cannot say that I know any woman by that name.' 

'And what about you Jean-Luc?' Aramis asked. He shook his head no. 

'Can 'e not speak?' Porthos growled. 

'No, he's a mute,' Alister replied with a smile. 'Makes him the perfect servant.' 

'Tell him to take his hat off,' d'Artagnan said. 'I want to see his face.' Jean-Luc looked at Alister, who gave a shrug in response. Jean-Luc reached up and removed his hat, and the three musketeers found themselves  
staring into Constance's eyes. She looked at each of them but made no attempt to walk towards them. 

'Did you kill them all?' she asked to no one in particular. d'Artagnan looked too stunned at seeing his wife to reply.

'No,' Aramis said, 'we left four tied up in the kitchen.'

Constance spun so fast that they could hardly see her and pinned Alister to the wall, her elbow pressed into his throat. 

'Call them off,' she said. 'Call them off and we'll pretend that this never happened.' 

'Why? It's your fault that they followed you to the house. And besides, it looks like I'd be too late,' his eyes drifted upwards to the rooftops where four shapes could be seen headed towards the garrison. 

'Then I'll see you in Hell,' she replied before grabbing her main gauche and running it through his throat. She turned around to face the musketeer's shocked faces. 

'They're headed towards the garrison,' she said, ' they're going to kill Athos and the rest of the Musketeers.' She scrambled up a couple of loose bricks and onto the roof of one of the houses.


	2. Chapter 2

'What the 'ell?' Porthos said. 

'I'll follow her on the roof, you follow her on the ground,' d'Artagnan said, regaining his composure. Aramis and Porthos nodded and they hurried they're separate ways. 

Constance ran after the Alister's men on the rooftops. Grabbing one of her daggers, she quickly aimed and threw it into the back of the slowest man. He fell to the street below, and she continued after the others. Aramis and Porthos stopped as a body fell in front of them, a knife skillfully placed in his back. They continued to run through the streets of Paris, careful to not lose sight of d'Artagnan on the rooftops above; they had long since lost sight of Constance. Constance chased after the two remaining men as they closed in on the garrison. She saw them remove their belts before throwing them over a wire and sliding down to the garrison roof below. She quickly followed suit not bothering to check if d'Artagnan was still following her. She let go of her belt, gracefully sliding down the roof and swinging herself from its edge to land on the deck in front of the Captain's quarters. She unsheathed her rapier, thrusting it at Francis as he withdrew his own. He took a step backwards in order to block it and she placed herself between him and Athos' door. She saw the other man running to the supply store towards the gate.

'I've been waiting to do this for a long time,' he said, taking the offensive end of the fight. Constance quickly took to a defensive strategy. 

'Waiting to lose to a woman?' 

'Waiting for you to slip up so that I could kill some Musketeers.' 

'You will not live to see that day!' she replied, switching to the offensive position. Athos opened the door to his quarters, harbeous aimed at Francis. 

'Constance,' he said in a greeting, slightly surprised to see her. 'I would ask if you require assistance, however, your opponent says otherwise.' Constance had forced Francis backwards down the stairs. Aramis, Porthos, and d'Artagnan ran into the courtyard.

'What?' Francis asked to Athos' remark. 

'He says that you fight like a child,' she replied. Francis was beginning to breath heavily. They had gone down the steps and were now completely in the courtyard. 

'Do you think that Alister will show you mercy after this?' 

'I slit his throat before chasing after you buffoons, so I doubt that he will be showing anyone anything,' she replied, running her rapier through his chest. She watched him fall to the ground before turning towards the storage room. She ran between the small group of Musketeers that had formed to watch the duel, intent on stopping the last man, when suddenly an explosion rattled the earth around her and her world went black.  
~~~~~~~~~

Two Days Later

Constance let out a groan as she forced her eyes open. Every ounce of her body hurt. She could feel a tight bandage around her left arm, the arm she had thrown up to protect herself from the explosion. The explosion! She sat up quickly from the thought, hissing in pain as the bandage rubbed against the burns on her arm. When she had recovered, she looked around the room. They had placed her in her bed at the garrison and her weapons were no where to be seen. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair; she should have known that they wouldn't leave them out for her. Looking down and slightly to her left, she noticed a vacant stool next to her bed. She hovered her hand over it to find it still warm. Somebody just left her room, probably to find some food. She needed to leave before her guardian returned. She wanted to see the Queen, her only female friend that she fully trusted, and she wasn't in the mood to face her husband and the three inseparables, and the millions of questions that they would undoubtedly ask. Standing up, she walked over to the small wardrobe that held her dresses and opened it. Staring at her was her rapier and knifes, carefully arranged so that she could find them. Smiling, she quickly changed into an acceptable dress, laced up her corset, and strapped the sheaths around her calves. She splashed some cold water onto her face from the water basin before grabbing the spare rope that they kept and heading towards the window. Tying the rope around the bed frame, she swung herself out of the window and down into the street below.

She took her time on her walk to the Louvre, enjoying the Parisian day. Millions of conversations popped through her head about how she was going to explain the past six months to the Queen; she didn't know what to say or if the Queen would even see her. After half an hour of arguing with herself, Constance decided that she would tell her everything and she would not spare one detail. Having arrived at the Louvre, she made her way to the Queen's apartments through the servants entrance, careful to avoid any Musketeers, fearful that they might run off and tell the others. She let out a controlled breath before knocking on the Queen's door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, any feedback would be great!


	3. Chapter 3

Constance walked into the Queen's bedroom.

'Yes?' Queen Anne asked before turning around to see who had come. 'Constance!' She rushed over to wrap Constance in a hug. 'Oh I have missed you dearly. What happened? D'Artagnan said that you were missing. They thought that someone had taken you!'

'Yes, that is true your Majesty. A man forced me to leave the parade with him, threatening to kill the people I love if I did not.' She heard a slight rustle come from behind her and turned her ear towards it.

'That is terrible,' the Queen replied. 'He didn't -- force you, did he?' 

Constance shook her head. 'No. It was on a more personal level. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, d'Artagnan, and I had a run-in with him a while ago, and he wanted revenge for what happened to his men.' Another rustle came from behind the Queen's curtains. Constance raised a finger to her lips and motioned for the Queen to back away towards the door. She removed a knife from the sheath on her inner left calf and crept over to the window drapes. She drove the knife low into the drapes and a loud yell came from behind them. She grabbed the man from behind the drapes, spun him around, and threw all of her weight into him, forcing him to the ground. The drapes ripped from the window as Constance and the intruder hit the ground with a heavy thud. Constance pinned his arms with her legs, the knife she had stabbed him with still embedded in his thigh. She had pulled the other knife out of the sheath on her left calf and held it against his throat. 

'Who sent you!' she yelled. The door to the Queen's chambers burst open and the four Musketeers she had been trying to avoid burst in. 'Who sent you!' she yelled again, this time in English. The man stared into her eyes, not saying a word. She repeated in a couple other languages before finally landing on German. 

'Who sent you?' she asked. His eyes lit with recognition of the language and she gave him a cruel smile. 'Ah, German. I would almost say that it was Alister that sent you except that I killed him and his men three days ago.'

'I will tell you nothing,' he replied. 

'That's your mistake,' she said, driving the dagger into his right shoulder. He yelled in pain as she moved to remove yet another dagger from the sheath on her right calf, and held it to his throat. 'Now, I will ask you again. Who sent you? Was it Alister's partner?' The man looked surprised that she knew. 'Yes, I knew that someone was working with him.' The man still refused to answer her question. 

'I've heard all about you and your methods, and it does not scare me.'

'Then perhaps I can change your opinion,' she replied. She drove the dagger into his left shoulder and he yelled out again. She reached to her right calf and pulled out her last remaining knife. 'Tell me or this time I swear I will put this through your eye and not give it another thought.' She shifted her legs forward so that she was applying pressure on both of the knifes his shoulders. Then, she raised the knife up, preparing to bring it down on his skull. 

'Constance-'

'Pierre!' the man yelled in agony. 'His name's Pierre Lafayette. He's the one who sent me!' Constance drove the knife down into the floor boards next to the his head. 

'You will hang for this,' she whispered to him before looking up at the others. Athos had gone to the door, most likely to tell the guards to spread the name that he had given. They others stood staring at her with wide eyes. Disgusted with herself, she stood up and quickly ran out of the room through the servant's entrance. She ran down the corridor, wanting nothing more than to disappear. The tears, however, did not come. She had long ago learned to disconnect her emotions from her actions. She heard her name being called behind her and her body suddenly felt heavy. She was tired; tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of everything. It was time to face the consequences of her actions. She stopped and turned around to see d'Artagnan in the doorway. 

'Constance,' he said, walking towards her, 'why are you running?' 

'You saw what I did; I'm a monster,' she replied. 

'No you're not, you are not a monster,' he said. He had come to stop in front of her. 'You just saved the Queen's life, and you saved the entire regiment's three days ago. – Are those the actions of a monster?' 

'I have done horrible things, far worse than you could ever imagine.'

'I don't care,' d'Artagnan stated. She didn't reply; she didn't know how to. She had dreamed of coming back for so long and now that she was back, she felt no better that the scum that rotted in the châtelet. 

'Come back to the garrison, please. You don't have to tell me or anyone else what happened over the past six months. Just please come back with me,' he pleaded. He held out his hand to her. Hesitantly, she took it.

~~~~~~

They walked back to the Garrison, sitting at their table once they arrived to wait for the others. Constance was uncomfortable. Because of the rules Alister had set in place, she hadn't been allowed to sit or eat with anyone else in a long time. She had been so deep into her thoughts while watching a pair of new recruits spare that she hadn't noticed d'Artagnan meet the others at the gate until they sat back down at the table. Out of habit, she instantly stood up and back away a couple of feet. The four looked at her curiously. 

'Sorry,' she said, forcing herself to sit back down next to d'Artagnan. 'There were – rules,' she tried to explain herself.

'It's fine,' d'Artagnan said quickly. 

'How's your arm?' Aramis asked.

'It's good,' she replied. 'It stings a little when I move but that's to be expected.' 

'Oh, I didn't know if you wanted these back,' he said, laying her daggers on the table. They were clean, meaning that he had taken the time to scrub the blood off of them. 

'Thank you,' she replied, taking them and placing them back in the sheaths. 

'No reconozco a ellos, en los que se hicieron?' Aramis asked her. 

'En Prussia,' she replied, not even blinking at the change in language. She looked tired. 'Qué encontraste Pierre?'

'Non,' Athos replied dryly, switching back to French. 'But I have half the regiment out looking for him.'

'And I'm keeping you here, when you should be out with them. I should retire,' she said.

'Rubbish,' Porthos said. 'We only just got you back and you haven't told us where you learned to fight like that.'

'Porthos,' d'Artagnan said.

'It's alright d'Artagnan. I know that you all are curious to know, especially because I wasn't a prisoner in the truest since of the word,' she replied. 'It happened after the parade, when we were in the courtyard and the King was making his speech. Alister approached my from behind and told me that he had muskets on the roofs pointed at a quarter of the Musketeers, the Queen, and Minister Tréville, and that he would signal for them to fire if I didn't come with him. You never formally met him but it was his men that attacked us about a year or year and a half ago on our way home from Brée. Anyway, he held that threat above me. If I ran away, attempted to send a message to you, tried to kill him, or killed myself, he wouldn't send his messengers to stop the others from killing you. He always had people following you, and they were always waiting for the messenger's absence so that they could kill you. He was the one that taught me how to fight.' 

'So you've been in Paris all this time?' Athos asked, this time in English. Once again, she didn't blink at the change in the language. 

'Non,' she replied in French. The four exchanged looks with one another. 'We only returned to Paris about a week and a half ago. We spent the majority of the time around the border.' They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before d'Artagnan spoke up.

'Would you like to go upstairs and rest for a couple of hours?' he asked. 

'Yes please,' she replied, looking up at him with a smile. They both stood up and he escorted her up the stairs to their room. He returned a few minutes later. 

'Well I've got to admit that that was pretty impressive,' Aramis said. He took a drink of wine from his mug. 

'Which part?' Porthos asked. 'The part where she got 'im to tell 'er the name of 'is 'andler in less than five minutes in another language or the fact that she answered your questions in Spanish and English without even blinkin' an eye?' 

'Both,' Aramis replied.

~~~~~~  
Constance woke up before dawn the next morning. She quietly slipped from d'Artagnan's side out of bed and made her way to the wardrobe. She had asked him to sleep next to her, not wanting to spend another night alone. She changed into pants and a shirt, and was fastening her rapier around her waist when she heard movement behind her. 

'Where are you going?' d'Artagnan asked, his voice thick from sleep. 

'To the church, and then back to the house. I left some things there that I must gather, if you would like to join me,' she replied.

'I would, just give me a couple of minutes.' He hopped out of bed to get dressed. Constance strapped her sheaths to her arms, and braided her in a single strand down her back. D'Artagnan shrugged his doublet on and they made their way out door and to the church. 

'I will only be a few minutes,' Constance said when they had arrived. 

'I'll be right here,' d'Artagnan replied. She nodded and walked inside. She had always liked this church for its simple beauties. There was no carved gold; no complex wood carvings. The stained glass in the windows was not as elaborate as some of the other churches and even though the sun wasn't up yet, they seemed to shine. Reaching the third pew from the front, she sat down bowed her head, and prayed. She didn't pray for forgiveness, she prayed for the innocent people she had killed and their families. When she had finished, she made her way outside to meet d'Artagnan, and they walked down the street towards Alister's former house. D'Artagnan was holding Constances' hand tightly, as if he was afraid that if he let go, she would vanish again.

'His rules,' Constance said, her words breaking the silence between them. 'I need to tell you what they were so that you'll understand some of my actions, both past and present.'

'Constance, you don't have t-'

'Yes I do. It's the only way for me to fully move past him and to start moving forward again.' D'Artagnan nodded his head in submission. 'I wasn't allowed to sit with anyone or eat with anyone, ever. I couldn't speak unless spoken to. I wasn't to be seen while on an assignment. And above all, I was always to obey his orders, no matter what they might be. -- I know it's not much-'

'But it was enough to take away your freedom,' d'Artagnan finished for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is sort of a sequel to a rough draft that I typed up a couple of months ago. That story explains how she met Alister and why he would want revenge on her now. I might post that one after this one. I will explain why he didn't just kill her later on. Once again, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!


End file.
